I’m still putting together our first class materials (actually, @thearystocrat is doing the heaviest, but awesomest, lifting for some of it), so here are some background materials for you to go over in the meantime.

Here’s the official 2011 ALA Organizational Chart (47.3Kb PDF). You can see the typical silos-like structure that org charts are meant to show, but I think of it as a representation of how staff and dues are organized.

After you look at the official org chart, take a look atÂ the informal one that Mary Ghikas created a few years ago. It’s more of a representation of the interactions between various pieces of ALA. I think it illustrates why we’re having Civics class in the first place – there’s a lot going on there. Did I mention that ALA is 134 years old?

You’ll need help decoding acronyms as we go through class, so keep this link to the list of ALA & LIS Acronyms handy. And of course, “LIS” stands for “Library and Information Science Studies.” Â 😉

5 Responses to “Background Reading for ALA Civics Class”

Where ALA is concerned, LIS refers to Library and Information Studies (not Science) as in the ALA Council adopted Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies. Of course it’s different for ALISE (Assoc for Library and Information Science Education) which adopted Science instead. Just sayin’… 😉

[…] Several people cited “greater good”-related reasons for not joining, as well: distrust, ineffectiveness, and a lack of alignment with personal values came up, especially for ALA. (Insert my rant about an association for libraries instead of an association for librarians.) The lack of trust is hard to fight, in ALA’s case, because such a large organization can make every possible effort to be transparent and still remain incomprehensible, due to its complexity. […]

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